CIP4 Announces JDF-Enabled Interoperability Testing Results

Monday, April 12, 2004

Press release from the issuing company

Zurich, Switzerland (April 9, 2004) –The International Cooperation for the Integration of Processes in Prepress, Press, and Postpress (CIP4) Organization announced today the results of its recent Interoperability Event in Zofingen CH. Thirty one companies participated, testing 42 products. In all, 93 pairs without prior engagement were tested, with 76 successful pairings. During the December 2003 Interoperability Event in Orlando, Florida, USA, 16 companies tested 24 products, resulting in 66 successful pairings among the 80 pairs tested.
CIP4 began quietly testing their products against the JDF specification in May 2003, proving out JDF interoperability in the process. Over the course of four, week-long, face-to-face “interoperability events” the number of companies participating in these events increased from 9 companies testing 16 products in May 2003 to the 31 companies that participated in the Zofingen event. In many cases, the participating companies had not worked together prior to the event.
“JDF is all about providing a common language and method for implementing process automation in the graphic arts industry, which implies that systems, software, and equipment on the shop floor be capable of sharing job information, specifications, commands, and feedback data. While this isn’t a new concept for printers, achieving it has generally meant sticking with one line of products to get the automation you were looking for,” explained James Harvey, CIP4 executive director. “In reality, most printing or prepress shops have software, systems, and equipment from multiple vendors. The real test of JDF is its ability to support interoperability between systems, software, and equipment of different manufacturers. The results of CIP4’s interoperability testing is encouraging given that each product pairing only has a short time to be tested during these events.”
During drupa 2004, CIP4 will host the first large-scale demonstration of JDF interoperability at the JDF Parc (drupa Hall 4, stand A33), as twenty companies organized into 18 “pods” will demonstrate interoperability between a variety of JDF-enabled products. Elsewhere at drupa, other companies with JDF-enabled products plan to participate in this demonstration from their stands.
To learn more about these companies and how their JDF-enabled products exchange JDF data and participate in an automate workflow; stop by the JDF Parc at drupa 2004.